This calendar of saints is drawn from several denominations, sects, and traditions. Although it will no longer be updated daily, the index on the right will guide visitors to a saint celebrated on any day they choose. Additional saints will be added as they present themselves to Major.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

November 10 -- Feast of Saint Orestes of Tyana

Or rather, behind two horses

Confession: This is a post hoc post, i.e. I am posting it on the night of the eleventh and back-dating it to keep the order of posts correct. Times being what they are ("Hectic?" "Wicked."), I am sometimes tempted to give up the blog altogether. And yet, here's another post, to be followed by at least two more.

The details of Saint Orestes' demise seem pretty certain. That he died in the Great Persecution is established. Likewise, that he lived in Cappadocia seems unquestioned. Thus, the well-established, more easily credible story is that a physician named Orestes was hauled into court by an eparch named Maximus. Dr. Orestes was tortured brutally (beaten, scraped, racked, burned, etc) and then left in prison to die. Having failed to expire like a good boy, he was hauled back up again and offered the opportunity to apostatize once more. When he declined, they drove twenty nails into his feet and dragged him behind a wild horse until he died. Nothing especially miraculous there except his resistance to torture.

A somewhat more wondrous story is told of his first questioning. He was hauled into a temple and commanded to sacrifice to the stone idols there. He declined, and then an earthquake cast down every idol, smashing them on the stone floor of the place. As they hauled him outside, and aftershock destroyed the temple itself. Being portently illiterate, the eparch then tortured him for awhile before dragging him behind a wild horse.